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THE Proud Boys and The Base are terrorist organisations, New Zealand's government declared today.
The US-based far-right and neonazi groups join 18 others, including the Islamic State, that have been given an official terrorist designation — making it illegal in New Zealand to fund, recruit or participate in the groups, and obligating authorities to take action against them.
Neither group is not known to be active in New Zealand, although the South Pacific nation has become more attuned to far-right threats after a white supremacist shot and killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two Christchurch mosques in 2019.
The New Zealand massacre inspired other white supremacists around the world, including a white gunman who killed 10 black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, this year.
The Proud Boys were designated as a terrorist group in Canada last year, while The Base has previously been declared the same in Britain, Canada and Australia.
New Zealand government’s said The Proud Boy’s involvement in the violent attack on the US Capitol building on January 6 2021 amounted to an act of terrorism.
A statement said that while several militia groups were involved that day, it was the Proud Boys who incited crowds, co-ordinated attacks on police officers and led other rioters to where they could break into the building.
New Zealand authorities argued that before the Capitol attack, the Proud Boys had a history of using street rallies and social media to intimidate opponents and recruit young men through demonstrations of violence. It said the group had put up various smoke screens to hide its extremism.
Earlier this month, the former leader of the male-only, hate group, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, and four others linked to the group were charged in the US with seditious conspiracy for what federal prosecutors say was a co-ordinated attack on the Capitol.
The Base’s founder, Rinaldo Nazzaro, “has repetitively counselled members online about violence, the acquisition of weapons, and actions to accelerate the collapse of the US government and survive the consequent period of chaos and violence,” the government said.
